Basel, Switzerland, Thursday 24 January 2002 –Anti-cancer drug MabThera® (rituximab) combined with standard chemotherapy can increase the chance of a cure and prolong survival in an increasingly common form of blood cancer called aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). This according to pivotal study results highlighted today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The journal details the two year results from the pivotal GELA study where it is estimated that patients treated with MabThera plus CHOP, standard chemotherapy, versus CHOP alone show an overall survival rate of 70 per cent (MabThera plus CHOP) vs. 57 per cent with CHOP alone. Current medical opinion indicates that if patients survive past the two-year milestone their chance of a cure can be up to 80% .
“Previously standard chemotherapy had only a 30 - 40 per cent cure rate in aggressive NHL, a disease that can be rapidly fatal. The complete remission rates seen with this new combination are very encouraging and indicate a real change in the way this disease can be treated from now on,” said lead study investigator Professor Bertrand Coiffier, Head of the Department of Hematology, Hospices Civiles de Lyon, France. “For the first time in 20 years we have a new drug combination that shows an increased chance of cure and an improvement in overall survival in this increasingly common form of blood cancer.”
NHL affects approximately 1.5 million around the world, and is the 3rd fastest growing form of cancer behind melanoma of the skin and lung cancer. NHL is a more common form of blood cancer than leukaemia and approximately 55% of cases of NHL are categorised as aggressive.
It is expected that MabThera will receive approval from the European health authorities to treat aggressive NHL in early 2002. MabThera is already available in over 70 countries to treat indolent NHL.
MabThera was discovered by IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation and was jointly developed by IDEC, GenentechMabThera is Roche’s second largest prescription product just four years after its first launch.
Roche is a world leader in Oncology. Its Franchise includes MabThera (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), Xeloda (colorectal cancer, breast cancer), Herceptin (breast cancer), NeoRecormon (anaemia in various cancer settings), Roferon-A (leukaemia, Kaposi’s sarcoma, malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma), Neupogen (neutropenia) and Kytril (chemotherapy and radiotherapy-induced nausea).
Journal
New England Journal of Medicine